By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

DALLAS, Texas — Sorghum was the new kid in the clubhouse at this year’s Commodity Classic, and Dallas seemed a fitting location for its debut, since Texas is the nation’s second-highest producer of grain sorghum.

For the first time in the Classic’s 14-year history, the National Sorghum Producers participated as a co-sponsor with the American Soybean Assoc., the National Corn Growers Assoc. and the National Assoc. of Wheat Growers (NAWG). But this is just the latest big news for sorghum, which has rapidly been regaining attention in the past few years.

Last May, the USDA approved the United Sorghum Checkoff Program (USCP), which began collecting from grain and forage sorghum sales in July toward research, development and promotion of the crop. And, according to the U.S. Grains Council (USGC), 2008 was a big year of sorghum sales to European Union (EU) countries
USGC President and CEO Ken Hobbie explained when the EU had poor crop production last year, U.S. sorghum became attractive for livestock feed because it wasn’t genetically modified. “There was no other (such) grain available on the market,” Hobbie said.

In fact, nine EU countries purchased U.S sorghum for the first time last year. Hobbie said Spain, Portugal and Italy had been using it as far back as the 1960s, but their imports had gone down over the decades, under political pressure. Nevertheless, Hobbie noted “sorghum has always held its own in the international market.”
Last week, in fact, the USGC announced it had helped arrange the sale of four railcars of South Dakota sorghum to Canada, more than 14,000 bushels, for birdseed and livestock feed. The Furst-McNess Co. based in Freeport, Ill. – also a USGC member – handled the logistics of the sale.

“This is very similar to the story behind U.S. DDGS (distillers dried grains with solubles) making headway in the Canadian marketplace,” said Dan Keefe, USGC manager of international operations for DDGS. “In 2003, 30,898 tons of U.S. DDGS were exported to Canada and now they are the second-largest buyer of the co-product, importing 771,797 tons in 2008.”

In addition, sorghum makes good ethanol, with approximately the same fuel production capability as corn – but at a lower feedstock price, according to Virgil Smail. Newly hired as the USCP executive director, Smail said his background is as a research scientist and he has worked for both the USDA and NAWG.

He said sorghum starch is unique in that it’s not as digestible as other grain starches and as such, research is being done on using it in foods for weight loss. He added the grain is high in healthy antioxidants and has been used in animal cancer studies – with an eye toward eventual human clinical trials – to prevent or slow tumor growth.

On top of this, it is used in some plastics, such as foam packing beads. “It’s really just a matter of availability and progress,” Smail said of sorghum’s many uses.

Sorghum is considerably smaller than its sister commodity crops; USDA data show just under 7.4 million acres were harvested in 2008, or about 465 million bushels. NSP Chairman Toby Bostwick, a New Mexico farmer, said 8.3 million acres are projected to be planted this year, up about two million from 2005.

Bostwick added weed-grass control is one of the biggest problems facing sorghum growers. Smail said yield is also a chief concern, and that there hasn’t been much research into either because of how small the U.S. acreage is compared to other crops – hence the checkoff being established to fund such research. (Smail said before the national one, each sorghum-producing state had its own checkoff.)

Promotion is another goal of the checkoff. Smail said the USCP wants to focus on developing its existing core growing areas – Texas, Kansas (the biggest U.S. producer) and other states in the Midwest and Southwest. But it is open to working with universities in states that would be interested in adding it as a primary rotation crop.

In the Farm World coverage area, only Illinois grows enough sorghum to show up on USDA data, with 77,000 harvested acres in 2008. Of the 11 states USDA recognizes as producing enough to track, Illinois comes in dead last.

Bostwick said despite weed and yield challenges, the crop has lower input costs and can survive in more arid soil than corn, wheat or soybeans. Smail speculated that for what a grower puts into the crop, it gives back a higher return than those other commodities.
The attraction of sorghum, said Bostwick, is “the sustainability of a crop that’s been pushed down to the bottom and is on its way back up.”